Gears of War Review Round-up

GameSpy (5/5) - "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Gears of War is the best-looking game I have ever played. It's a truly stunning achievement in terms of visuals, presentation and sound. Never before have I been given so much to look and marvel at while actually playing an adrenalized shooter. It's a fantastic achievement, and it's also easily the best reason to own an Xbox 360 to date. Now that that's out of the way, I also need to hammer home that while the single-player game is a good amount of fun, Gears' real hook is the superb multiplayer game. You'll be all done with the main story after eight or so hours, and even though there are three difficulty levels to play through, the legs of Gears is certainly in abusing foes online."

TeamXbox (9.6/10) - "Unlike many "event" games that come and go, Gears of War lives up to the hype surrounding it, and while it's not perfect, it's impossible not to want more. While the storyline is lacking in a few areas, the gameplay itself is exciting and intense, although hardcore players might want to up the difficulty a bit. For many, the game's strength lays in its multiplayer options, both cooperatively and competitively. If you can keep from letting out a whoop after you curb stomp a buddy, you're a stronger man than I. Finally, the Xbox 360 has the killer app that everyone's been waiting for, a game that should be shown to anyone who doubts the system's power."

360.IGN (9.4/10) - "Gears of War is a must-have game, pure and simple. Epic has effectively created a new gaming universe, and the rich story of planet Sera holds its own with the likes of Hyrule, City 17 and the Mushroom-friggin'-Kingdom. A game so gorgeous, both visually and audibly, that is this fun to play comes along only a handful of times a console generation."

GameSpot (9.6/10) - "Gears of War is a game that capitalizes on all of the promises made by the next generation of gaming. It looks more than a few steps beyond what consoles have been doing to this point, and the gameplay is supremely fulfilling from start to finish in all of its various modes. While there have certainly been plenty of similar shooters before it, the game's great weapons, amazing graphics, and absolutely thrilling action make it stand out from the pack in a big, big way."

EGM/1Up (10/10) - "I can go on and on, but you really need to play this visual and visceral masterpiece for yourself. When you do, you'll find plenty of minor problems, just like I did...but you can always find reasons not to give a game a 10. And while I was playing Gears of War, all I kept running into was reasons to give it a 10."

Game Informer (9.5/10) - "Gears of War is, without a doubt, the must-play Xbox 360 title of 2006. I have some minor qualms with the single-player game, but as a co-op or multiplayer game it's a treat unlike any other. The gameplay is fresh, and the graphics are simply stunning."

Eurogamer (8/10) - "In a sense, Gears of War lives up to expectations in that it's one of the most intensely beautiful-looking games ever made, but is one that plays by the rules in the gameplay stakes. If you want to gorge on a next generation audio-visual feast then Gears of Wars is a king's banquet. But what of the gameplay pudding that Peter Moore so often reminds us that he likes? The proof, he says, is in the eating, and in this case Gears of War sticks to a well-worn recipe."

Yahoo! (4.5/5) - "If you've been wondering why you lined up all night for an Xbox 360 this time last year, agonize no longer. This is the kind of game that sells systems, and if you have the merest action-loving bone in your body - and you can handle the gore, bad language, and short-ish play time -- it's pointless to resist. Gears of War is the best 360 game of 2006."

Games Radar (10/10) - "We were wary of Gears of War and its hype-fueled debut, but actually playing this magnum opus has shoved all doubts from our extremely critical minds. If you own a 360, you owe it to yourself to buy this game (and an Xbox Live account... and broadband internet service if you don't already have either of those). If you like guns at all, you owe it to yourself to buy a 360 just for Gears of War - you will not be the least bit sorry."

GamePro (4.8/5) - "Gears of War may be big and dumb, but it's fun - the video game equivalent of a Jerry Bruckheimer film, maybe. Even calling Gears "fun" doesn't quite seem to do it justice. The game glows in a revelatory way we haven't seen since God of War and Resident Evil 4. If nothing else, it's infinitely more engaging and suspenseful than this year's crop of by-the-books FPS games, and is likely to sell more than a few consoles for Microsoft."

GameTrailers (9.1/10) - "Gears of War is fairly short, and with no vehicles in the multiplayer, its overall longevity could become an issue without adequate post-launch support. But what is here is some of the best gaming to be had this year. The attention to detail&#Array;from the heat waves that emanate from discharged weapons to the ultra-gory executions--help it to ascend above the status quo. It borrows many ideas from other games, but manages to perfect almost all of them. It's all the little things that add up to make Gears of War an experience like no other, and one that every adult with an Xbox 360 would be a fool not to experience."

GameBrink (97/100) - "From the amazing experience that is the single player to the well balanced and extremely fun multiplayer to the visuals and beyond Gears is the best game of the year hands down."

Computer & Video Games (9/10) - "For single-player, the pacing is spot-on. You're never doing one thing for too long and there's plenty of variety in the gameplay. One moment you could be attacking a room full of Locust, the next you're defending it from a counter-attack through the front door, navigating around a gun turret or holding a town square as the appearance of emergence hole after emergence hole drops the white blokes all around you."

DailyGame (9/10) - "With this package of graphics and gameplay nuances, Gears of War should have no trouble carrying the Xbox 360's load for the holiday season. Its campaign is both short and unsatisfying from a storytelling perspective, but the actual mechanics of the game and the overall experience are fantastic. It even does a good job of mixing-up its gameplay, not just with the multiple paths, but by including vehicle sections, on-rails segments and turret sequences. Gears of War doesn't break any barriers or push any envelopes totally off the edge, but it does enough to make for an addictive, memorable experience. And for a third-person shooter, that's quite an achievement."